茶 (chá) 'tea' is a phono-semantic compound. The grass radical 艹 at the top marks it as a plant, while the lower part 余 (yú) supplies the sound. The character was standardised in the Tang dynasty, and the English word 'tea' comes from the Min Chinese reading 'te', whereas 'chai' comes from this Mandarin reading 'chá'.

Origin

phono-semantic compound

Root

艹 (grass, semantic) + 余 (yú, phonetic)

English cognates

tea, chai